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.\" $Id: curs_printw.3x,v 1.32 2022/02/12 20:05:11 tom Exp $
.TH printw 3NCURSES ""
.ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
.el       .ds `` ``
.ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
.el       .ds '' ''
.de bP
.ie n  .IP \(bu 4
.el    .IP \(bu 2
..
.na
.hy 0
.SH NAME
\fBprintw\fP,
\fBwprintw\fP,
\fBmvprintw\fP,
\fBmvwprintw\fP,
\fBvwprintw\fP, \fBvw_printw\fP \- print formatted output in \fBcurses\fP windows
.ad
.hy
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fB#include <curses.h>\fP
.sp
\fBint printw(const char *\fIfmt\fB, ...);\fR
.br
\fBint wprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fB, const char *\fIfmt\fB, ...);\fR
.br
\fBint mvprintw(int \fIy\fB, int \fIx\fB, const char *\fIfmt\fB, ...);\fR
.br
\fBint mvwprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fB, int \fIy\fB, int \fIx\fB, const char *\fIfmt\fB, ...);\fR
.br
\fBint vw_printw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fB, const char *\fIfmt\fB, va_list \fIvarglist\fB);\fR
.sp
/* obsolete */
.br
\fBint vwprintw(WINDOW *\fIwin\fB, const char *\fIfmt\fB, va_list \fIvarglist\fB);\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \fBprintw\fP, \fBwprintw\fP, \fBmvprintw\fP and \fBmvwprintw\fP
routines are analogous to \fBprintf\fP [see \fBprintf\fP(3)].
In
effect, the string that would be output by \fBprintf\fP is output
instead as though \fBwaddstr\fP were used on the given window.
.PP
The \fBvwprintw\fP and \fBvw_printw\fP routines are analogous
to \fBvprintf\fP [see \fBprintf\fP(3)]
and perform a \fBwprintw\fP using a variable argument list.
The third argument is a \fBva_list\fP, a pointer to a
list of arguments, as defined in \fB<stdarg.h>\fP.
.SH RETURN VALUE
Routines that return an integer return \fBERR\fP upon failure and \fBOK\fP
(SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other than \fBERR\fP") upon successful
completion.
.PP
X/Open defines no error conditions.
In this implementation,
an error may be returned if it cannot allocate enough memory for the
buffer used to format the results.
It will return an error if the window pointer is null.
.PP
Functions with a \*(``mv\*('' prefix first perform a cursor movement using
\fBwmove\fP, and return an error if the position is outside the window,
or if the window pointer is null.
.SH HISTORY
While \fBprintw\fP was implemented in 4BSD,
it was unused until 4.2BSD (which used it in games).
That early version of curses was before the ANSI C standard.
It did not use <varargs.h>, though that was available.
In 1991 (a couple of years after SVr4 was generally available,
and after the C standard was published),
other developers updated the library,
using <stdarg.h> internally in 4.4BSD curses.
Even with this improvement,
BSD curses did not use function prototypes (or even declare
functions) in the <curses.h> header until 1992.
.PP
SVr2 documented
\fBprintw\fP,
\fBwprintw\fP
tersely as \*(``printf on \fIstdscr\fP\*('' and
tersely as \*(``printf on \fIwin\fP\*('', respectively.
.PP
SVr3 added
\fBmvprintw\fP, and
\fBmvwprintw\fP, with a three-line summary saying that they were analogous
to \fBprintf\fP(3),
explaining that the string which would be output from \fBprintf\fP(3) would
instead be output using \fBwaddstr\fP on the given window.
SVr3 also added \fBvwprintw\fP, saying that the third parameter
is a \fBva_list\fP, defined in <varargs.h>,
and referring the reader to the manual pages for \fIvarargs\fP and
\fBvprintf\fP for detailed descriptions.
.PP
SVr4 added no new variations of \fBprintw\fP,
but provided for using <varargs.h> or <stdarg.h> to define the \fBva_list\fP
type.
.PP
X/Open Curses added \fBvw_printw\fP to replace \fBvwprintw\fP,
stating that its \fBva_list\fP definition requires <stdarg.h>.
.SH PORTABILITY
In this implementation, \fBvw_printw\fP and \fBvwprintw\fP are equivalent,
to support legacy applications.
However, the latter (\fBvwprintw\fP) is obsolete:
.bP
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 described these functions.
The function
\fBvwprintw\fP is marked TO BE WITHDRAWN, and is to be replaced by a function
\fBvw_printw\fP using the \fB<stdarg.h>\fP interface.
.bP
The Single Unix Specification, Version 2 states that
\fBvw_printw\fP  is preferred to \fBvwprintw\fP since the latter requires
including \fB<varargs.h>\fP, which
cannot be used in the same file as \fB<stdarg.h>\fP.
This implementation uses \fB<stdarg.h>\fP for both,
because that header is included in \fB<curses.h\fP>.
.bP
X/Open Curses, Issue 5 (December 2007) marked \fBvwprintw\fP (along with
\fBvwscanw\fP and the termcap interface) as withdrawn.
.SH SEE ALSO
.na
\fBncurses\fP(3NCURSES),
\fBaddstr\fP(3NCURSES),
\fBscanw\fP(3NCURSES),
\fBtermcap\fP(3NCURSES),
\fBprintf\fP(3),
\fBvprintf\fP(3).
